AAUP MINUTES

April 26, 2007

Members Present: Paula Hinton, Kristin Pickering, Tom Saya, Jeff Roberts, Kurt Eisen, Tony Baker, Andy Smith, Chris Miller, Jessica Joy, Paul Semmes

Guest Present: Venkat Subramanian

Agenda and Minutes from previous meeting were approved.

Elections: Decided to table elections until later in the meeting so that more members would be present.

Old Business:

Kharif—Membership—(via email)—“Chapter membership is still at 58. We will not be able to verify any changes until the Summer Roster is forwarded.”

Jonakin—Treasurer’s Report—No report.

Programs—Pickering—Overview of talk with Fincher, Sallee, and Administration—Mayor Sallee, Henry Fincher, Leo McGee, Marvin Barker, and several faculty members came to the meeting. Group discussed plan to focus on Tech more as a center of the Cookeville economy and Tech’s relationship with the city and community. Mayor Sallee discussed some proposals to include research here regarding environmental issues. Fincher did not seem as interested in TTU playing a role in this although he considers TTU a valuable member of the community.

Smith—We will not be publishing a spring newsletter. It has been put off until Fall 2007. Katherine Osburn’s report regarding this meeting will be included in the newsletter. In her report she says that Fincher said TTU is great for the community but that he isn’t certain what the community can do for TTU as far as state legislation. Fincher assured those present that TTU is valued but that there are funding issues.

Miller—Years ago there were discussions with the administration regarding this area. There is some resistance/indifference from the community to supporting TTU so our representatives often hesitate to offer support.

Committee A—No Report

Committee R—No Report

Committee W—Pickering—Ada Haynes, Josie McQuail, Sharon Whitney, and Kris Pickering had a discussion via email regarding the pay and gender issue and how to obtain data. Haynes suggested getting data from Glenn James of the Office of Institutional Research. Pickering emailed James who said that Marvin Barker and President Bell had already asked him to do a similar study and that he would be presenting his report at the next Faculty Senate meeting with the President. These meetings [with the president] are closed to non-members so Chris Miller took notes of the report.

Miller—Glenn James reported that we [TTU] are in compliance. Any differences in years of service within a rank can account for most of the differences in pay. Overall during the last few years we have been between 83 and 86 % of CUPA. There are 366 faculty members. 17 are at the CUPA target or above it, 349 are below it and require adjustment. Neither group is concentrated in any one department.

Our data is only as good as funding for the Equity Model.

The next issue discussed at the Faculty Senate meeting was whether or not James should post the data on the internet. There was a general discussion among Senators regarding that issue. One Senator said he uses this type of information in his classes, so if it is on the web, students will be using it. Some left the meeting with the impression that it will be published to the web, while others had the impression that it would not.

Baker—The real problem is the lack of faculty input. Also, faculty need more information.

[There was a general discussion among AAUP members present regarding pay issues, faculty input, and AAUP representation on the Faculty Senate.]

Miller—Miller recommended that AAUP go to the provost, president, or the President’s Commission on the Status of Women for information since Glenn James does not answer to AAUP. Both gender and rank should be considered.

Eisen—We also need more elaboration regarding those at the lowest % of CUPA.

Elections—Pickering—Here are the nominees:

President—Andy Smith

Vice President—Katherine Osburn

Treasurer—Jon Jonakin

Secretary—Paula Hinton

Pickering asked if there were any more nominations from the floor. [There weren’t any.]

Pickering brought up a concern regarding whether or not it was a good idea to elect someone to the position of president if they do not yet have tenure.

[There was a lengthy discussion regarding the pros and cons of this…]

Pickering once again read the list of nominees.

Eisen—made a motion to approve.

Miller—seconded the motion.

Entire slate of nominees was approved unanimously.

[Due to time constraints, Smith requested that he be able to move some new business up in the agenda.]

Summary of April 14^th state meeting in Knoxville—Smith—The State Conference met in Knoxville on April 14, 2007. Tony Blasi [Tennessee Conference President] wants the next state conference meeting to be in the Eastern or Western part of the state since Middle Tennessee has been the location of several of these meetings. There was a good showing—many new faces at the meeting. There was a report regarding upcoming legislative issues—this report is available to anyone interested. Contact Andy Smith if you would like a copy. There was also a very interesting presentation about contingent faculty in Tennessee. During the afternoon session, Smith and Baker presented the adjunct pay rate proposal [AAUP Resolution to Raise TBR’s Maximum Per-Credit Part-Time Compensation Rates]. Those present at the state meeting also discussed a faculty member from MTSU who was denied tenure. The fall meeting will probably be in west Tennessee, perhaps in Memphis.

[back to Old Business]

Update on relationship of faculty with Disability Services—Roberts—Roberts has spoken to the Faculty Senate, departmental chairs, and President Bell about this problem. There are many concerns. There is nothing in the faculty handbook regarding our relationship with Disabilities Services. There doesn’t seem to be any clear outline of how much leeway faculty members have. The incident at VA Tech. points to a problem—should Disability Services be required to report the nature of student’s disabilities to faculty? Are there some students who should not be in college at all? We need to pursue this further. Over the summer Roberts will try to draft a proposal.

New Business:

Updating faculty handbook for new employees—Pickering—The Faculty Handbook needs to be updated. Pat Reagan has suggested that we form a committee to do so. He does not have the time to do it himself. Pickering suggested we address this next fall.

Venkat Subramanian—It might be nice to have a presentation regarding the relationship between Disability Services and the faculty at the New Faculty Workshop every year.

Recently published salary document—Pickering—a copy was circulated in an email from Tom Guild. It may also be obtained from Academe or online.

Meeting adjourned at 12:07 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Paula Hinton

TTU AAUP Secretary